Yea 60, I think you might be right. I believe you told me about them before and somehow, during the search, I got hold of a porn site that was tinypic...something. I though you were B.S.ing me at the time.

Glad you sound happier. If the sub wasn't in the corner for the measurements, you should give that a try. That should give you some more boost. For music you need to stuff the port for better sound, because an EBS type alignment will sound too loose with music.

BTW some simple mods should help those Niles. I can't tell, are the cones of the woofer paper or plastic? They need some deadening and bracing on that thin plastic cab, along with some stuffing in there. Just for grins do a sound comparison with one open plus a piece of cardboard to extend the baffle and the other speaker stock.

Do a similar measurements on one of the Niles. Not max, just at a moderate set volume to see what extension they have on both ends and a general idea of response across the spectrum. Any big peaks or nulls?

The Flintstones are the first pair of OBs I ever made in finished form and that was 2 years ago, when I was a noob. What you want is my next similar set, although you might consider something similar and cheap in the meantime. Use the guts of your Niles + 2 pairs of cheap 6x9's or 5x8's per side, as a simple test venture into OB's.

Yes, sub was 1' from the right wall, and 6" from rear wall, with port facing back of seating.

Paper/Plastic; You know,...I'm not really sure. I'll have to look at them better. They're fairly shiny, like plastic, but couldn't promise that. I'll check.They have a nice thick/dense white batting in there. Actually some pretty impressive stuffing. Hate the plastic though.

Sounds like a weekend type project with the testing. Probably a better idea to check the same speaker (sealed then apart) instead of two different one's I'd imagine?

Liken' that OB thing. (read the WHOLE DarkStar thread, all 87 pages to date. Lots of stuff 'over my head')I suppose a guy could just grab some mdf and cut 3 pieces, poke some holes, and see how it sounds. And some bracing of course.

[quote author=Bob in St. Louis link=1145573673/255#261 date=1150841382]Sounds like a weekend type project with the testing. Probably a better idea to check the same speaker (sealed then apart) instead of two different one's I'd imagine? [/quote]

No, it's a 5min project. No, not just one and stuff the woofer port and turn the XO cutoff up much higher to help fill in the bass. Tape a piece of cardboard to each side of the opened up speaker to add some baffle to it. Then play some music and pan left and right to hear the difference between OB and boxed, keeping in mind that the bass mayl be severely lacking on the OB. With both playing though, the other one will fill in most of the missing bass, but you'll hear much more open and natural sound on the open speaker side. It's not subtle and you'll wonder why they ever started closing up speakers (bass more cheaply and higher power handling are the reasons. You want instant switching and direct comparison, because out audio memory is very short and only direct comparisons are worth much.

Quote:

Liken' that OB thing. (read the WHOLE DarkStar thread, all 87 pages to date. Lots of stuff 'over my head')I suppose a guy could just grab some mdf and cut 3 pieces, poke some holes, and see how it sounds. And some bracing of course. Bob

Cardboard and duct tape. If you want to spend a few $, get a couple of pieces of the posterboard with the foam core that architects use for models. Then with a serrated knife and tape you can try a few test speakers in minutes. Don't worry about bracing on test cabs. That's for a slight refinement at the end. You just need them to stand up.

Does your center channel have dual woofers? Once you go OB, you won't want the center anyway, so the drivers may be useful. Open it up too for pics.

Good advise John, I mentioned the weekend thing since I'd rather spend some 'quality' time listening to all of the various sources. The surrounds are wall mounted. Would you recommend I remove them, maybe set them on a stool further away from the wall for the "OB test"? Or should I just experiment?

The center is MTM. I've peeked in the rear port once, found nice supply of stuffing. But will photo some 'exploritory surgery'. I've heard about people not using centers for HT, I understand the imaging and soundstage a guy can create with proper drivers and placement, BUT what about discrete channels? What do you do with dedicated center material? Realizing an OB needs to be vertical with one end on the floor for bass, what about an OB center channel placed horizontal on legs? Center doesn't carry much bass anyway?

Would be cool if I could "bastardize" my speakers and make them all "baffleable". hmmm, rear surrounds too? ???

For seeing what OB is about, connect them in front in place of your mains and with the center channel turned off. Use whatever is convenient and place them some distance from the front and side walls for the test listening. Include music and some movie dialogue. I love OB's for music and they're even better for HT, because dialogue is much more clear and natural.

Regarding the center channel info. When you set your receiver to no center channel, then what usually goes to the center is sent to the mains.

[quote author=John in CR link=1145573673/255#267 date=1150922364]Mode would do the trick too, just 2 ch stereo. [/quote]

I think it's there....on the remote, however (since electronics ALWAYS know whats best for us ::) ) the receiver is in some kind of "mode" that will not let me select any of the functions like 2,3, 5, 7, channel surround, in addition to all of the various Dolby doohickeys. ::) It's locked on 7.1 surround (although the front/mains behind the screen have been unplugged for weeks) ....hmmm, may have to kick it. ???

OB may be my final frontier, I've tried just about every box style that I know of so far. I've got lots of high Q drivers but none that will go low enough to get down to 60 hz. Unless I could be convinced otherwise, I've got 8 eight inch drivers with Qts higher than .6 and fs of 57. Either OB or Frugal Horns, I don't have to decide for a few weeks yet.

Bob, this is what I would really like to see you try. Use the full HWK size box (all three chambers, full volume of the enclosure) with one driver only. Stuff the snot out of it with fibreglass. It would have to be retuned a bit higher but I don't think it would be too much higher. Then take your other driver and put it another HWK size box and put that in the other corner.

Same amount of power, same drivers but a whole lot louder. What's a couple more sheets of wood? I dare you.